Amazing what 2 late tries can do to peoples recollections of the game. If we stay at 13 vs 13 we win the game. At the time Byrne was sent off we had taken control and Thompson was leading the way. Walmsley had the 30-40 yard run at the end but without that his stats wouldnt be much different to Thompsons.

Enjoy the win And lets hope we can draw each other in the semis of the cup and we can do it again on a firmer pitch

I thought Matautia was the best of the 3 Friday.

I genuinely don't get the love in for Knowles. According to the Superleague website he made 20 carries for 106 metres yet the apparently dominated Thompson made 101m from 16 carries.

I have never seen Knowles break a tackle.

Like I said in my previous post 2 late tries have made this into some performance with the ball it wasn't for Saints. At the time of the red card we had started to dominate after HT and if we had stayed 13 vs 13 we would have won the game

Lets hope we can draw each other in the cup and do it again

Dominated so much you didn’t make a single break? Ok mate

Oh and on Knowles he smashed in defence all game and showed some nice hands on more than one occasion.

Which shows how dominant we were at that time for ten mins were camped on your line winning the collisions and penning you back which is where the red card came from at the time. This is literally the definition of dominating a side

We weren't clinical with the execution and that relates to no clean breaks but from 40-60 we were dominating.

Knowles 36 tackles 107m best player on the pitch. Thompson 30 tackles 101m in less time on the pitch was dominated. Can you see the overreaction?

Don’t take things personal Stu. Insults aren’t usually what you’re about.

Saints have thrown this narrative around for the last few years that players play for peanuts, they don’t do marquee spots etc but people can’t be expected to believe that. What could a prime Walmsley have expected to be offered in the NRL? I’d say upwards of 500k, so let’s not make out that guys like him and Knowles are going hungry in comparison to Thompson. No doubt about it, Thompson will be on a great deal and looking at him this season, he deserves it. He was absolutely superb on Friday (and he has been in every other game for us) and I find it highly amusing that a fan base that ‘Doesn’t care about Thompson’ have spent their weekends trying to play down how good he was. Alex Walmsley was the best player on the field, with Thompson and Brad O’Neill in a group along with guys like Knowles and Matautia behind that.

Ok I get it. You won the Waney Wigan way.
Your mom was a prop making next to no yards. No longer the entertainers but the grinders lol.
Saints throughly deserved the win. I’ve no complaints whatsoever.

Don’t get me wrong your defence is superb. On its day the best defence I’ve ever seen from an English team.
I’ve actually tipped you to win the LLS this so I respect and acknowledge your team’s capabilities.
You acknowledge that your attack was off. It’s been off now for over a season so I’m not sure how you are going to improve it now. Not sure of the possession percentages on GF but I suspect it was huge in Saints favour. How are you going to improve your attack?

We haven’t fired this season except for the Penrith game. Am I worried about that ? Yes a little but last season we proved that we can and do get it right for the big games. Our passing all season as lacked that crispness and your top class defence ensured that we didn’t get that crispness back on GF. Do I think that our attack will get better? Absolutely. Our passing couldn’t get any worse.

If Passi was fit I assume that he would replace Wingfield who played very few minutes and seemed reluctant to take the ball in on a few occasions so a definite plus for you when he plays.
If Bell plays who do you drop? Batchelor, Whitley or Sironen? An excellent impact player replacing 3 excellent backrow players so an improvement but maybe some downsides as well.

Walters would replace Nsemba. He would give us more power and variation plus Nsemba played zero minutes. A definite big plus for us.
Havard would replace Mago. For me Havard is the best young English prop in the game. A massive plus for us particularly as Mago played about 10 minutes.
Cooper would replace Byrne. A better prop especially going forward.

For me with 2 full packs we would be a lot more competitive than we were on GF and it’s where I think that this enable our backs to play more fluently and give your defence more problems.

Enjoy your GF victory as I would if we had won. I’m quietly confident that we can and will turn the tables over the course of the season barring major injuries.
By the way Stu was that you in Sainsbury’s yesterday with the Saints shirt on?

I’ll try and reply to a few points in one post.

Firstly it wasn’t me in Sainsburys. I don’t wear replica shirts and I’m currently in Spain (got her yesterday and getting pelters off the wife for being on my phone but I love a debate)

I came on here after the game to acknowledge Wigans part in such a great game. They are an outstanding team and the next time we play it will be a genuine 50/50 possibly Wigan being slight favourites. They muscled up superbly and despite all our first half territory we couldn’t score.

I just can’t fathom how it seems to be a given that the next time we play as long as Wigan play better it’s fine.

Who is to say we don’t improve our attack? Welsby and Lomax have been relatively quiet all season but what if one of them fires?

Yes Wigans pack may be better next time with returning players but ours could be too with Passi and Bell.

Bell has interchanged superbly all season with Knowles and given us another dimension.

I just feel there’s a distorted view of Wigan playing better next time and rolling us.

If they do I’ll come on here and hold my hands up.

Edit- Saints fans mention Thompson because from what I’ve been reading I thought Payne Haas had played for Wigan. In reality there were 3 better Saints forwards (IMO) and when I mention salary I’m doing it to refer to output v salary. You’d have change left from Knowles and Walmsley combined compared to Thompson and that for me is important.

The figures mentioned was 1 million over 4 years. Theres no way those 2 dont command that figure between them.

Anyway enjoy your holiday I know you love your sun.

Shock horror a Wigan forum backing there own team, bit salty there stu. I do think your side is on it way out, the niggling in the ruck throwing arm up for pens I’ve always seen that as a side who can’t cope with a game. We picked up at the right time last year and our side is arguably better this season so obviously we feel we will get better. Watching saints stumble through sets in attack the same as last year no I don’t see how it improves. You mention about Walmsley he did very little until we had 12 on the field at the end when he went on that run. I thought Matatiua sironin and lees were great. Always thought Percival was a decent centre but nothing more now the sides on the decline he’s average. Bachelor I do rate him he didn’t stand out but again was injured. If teams attack Bennison they know he can’t defend and same with Hurrell, can’t turn save his life that man so is going to get found out like last GF. I’m more worried about Catalan than I am about Saints. If you don’t like what’s said on here you know what to do

Apart from practically every discussion he gets into where Wigan fans won't share his love-in with Saints.

On a couple points raised on Thompson: He's been superb every time he's payed this season. Even in a match where the team was down to 12 men for a third of the game (notoriously hard for forwards to make yards under those circumstances as certain posters know) he pretty much matched the best Saints had to offer even though he was apparently "dominated"

On his Salary: if he's earning more than those two combined I'll eat my hat. Even if it were true why would it matter? It's not as if it's affecting our ability to sign or retain players. We have the best squad in Superleague and that's a universal opinion, not a Wigan fan's one.

Interesting to hear a neutrals view on the Superleague Raw review of the game (Wire fan, so no love for either) and I think taking all Wigan and Saints fans debates aside, he’s just about right-

Walmsley best player on the field.

Mentions for Knowles, Thompson and O’Neill also.

Staggered Lees got man of the match

A 3-2-1 points award of Walmsley, Knowles and O’Neill but he said O’Neill would’ve got 3 had Wigan held out.

Red card probably turned the game but hard to say. Also agreed with the decision of red and thought the yellow might be a red.

Agreed with Wellens that the intensity/quality of the fixture is as close to Origin as we’ll see in this country currently.


All pretty fair comments. In all the points scoring against each other, I think we as Wigan and Saints fans can sometimes miss just how special this rivalry is at the minute. The teams are as close in quality terms as I can remember in my time watching the sport.

I think you’ve missed the emphasis if both teams have a full set of forwards available. Maybe you missed it or you think what I posted is a load of rollocks. I’m pretty confident that with 2 full sets of forwards our potential for overall improvement beats yours.

Welsby had his quietest game against us probably since he started playing but maybe Lomax/Dodds/Clark hadn’t got the game on Friday or haven’t got it at all when it’s hey lads hey. Welsby is a fine player and so is Field when he’s on his game.
Lomax is in the twilight of his career. It’s not a criticism just an acknowledgment of fact. A top class player at his best but he hasn’t really fired now for over a season.

Anyway I’m already looking forward to the next battle. Hopefully we both get through to the CCSF and we can have another rerun with hopefully a different result.

I enjoy debating with rival fans. Would be a bit boring if we all held the same opinion. If you want me to not post just because I have a different opinion then that’s a shame

I should post with a emoji like Phuzzy does to mask the fact he’s a condescending patronising p***k who argues with his own fans on here.

I reacted to NK who is normally a great poster who suggested that Saints players play for free which I felt was a daft comment from a normally great balanced poster.